Compassionate Community Grant

AACOM is excited to announce a special grant opportunity for colleges of osteopathic medicine (COMs) to advance Compassionate Communities. 

Barry Kerzin, MD, the personal physician to the 14th Dalai Lama, delivered a lecture on "Building a Compassionate Community" during the Friday Forum at Educating Leaders 2025, which inspired this grant. Read his bio.

Intro

This special opportunity offers small grants ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 to support innovative, compassion-driven projects across the osteopathic medical education community. This grant includes programs for cultivating compassion and belonging; recognizing and celebrating compassionate culture; advancing compassion through community-based education and/or service learning; and sustaining compassion through educational transitions.

The application portal for this grant opens June 4. Applications are due by July 10.

Compassionate Community Grant Application

Background

Launched in connection with the Friday Forum at Educating Leaders 2025, the AACOM Compassionate Community Grant transforms inspiration into action. This grant opportunity supports projects that bring compassion to life across osteopathic medical education—through meaningful connection, community engagement, and lasting culture change.

Objective 

At AACOM, we believe compassion is not only a foundation of osteopathic medicine—it’s the foundation of transformative medical education and community impact. The AACOM Compassionate Community Grants are designed to spark and support innovative projects that build cultures of kindness, trust, connection, and service across the osteopathic medical education continuum. These grants aim to elevate efforts that empower students, engage communities, inspire institutions, and celebrate the everyday acts of compassion that define osteopathic medical education. Together, we can create learning environments where compassion is both taught and lived. 

Eligibility 

Eligible applicants include pre-accredited or accredited COMs in the United States. Developing COMs participating in AACOM’s consulting programs are also eligible.

Duration 

Compassionate Community funds will be awarded in October 2025. Funds will be issued directly to the COM. Awardees will have until May 2025 to use the funds.

Proposal Narrative 

The entire document should not exceed 15 pages. Proposals exceeding this limit may be automatically disqualified. 

The proposal narrative should be organized as follows: 

1. Title of Grant/Proposal
    
2. Category 
   
1. Community Engagement & Partnership Building 
   • Using student education and service-learning programs to recruit new training sites or strengthen current partnerships with community-based organizations
   • Co-developing service projects with local stakeholders based on shared priorities 
      
2. Reflection & Curricular Integration 
   • Designing reflection tools (e.g., journals, debriefing guides, discussion groups) that link service to empathy and professional identity development
   • Embedding service learning into existing courses or longitudinal tracks 
   • Hosting retreats or orientation activities rooted in community service and compassion 
      
3. Faculty Development in Service Learning 
   • Training faculty to mentor students through reflective service projects 
   • Creating faculty learning communities focused on service-based education 
   • Supporting scholarship on service learning and compassion 
      
4. Program Assessment & Sharing Models 
   • Developing novel outcome measures that track impact on students and communities 
   • Analyzing longitudinal data on learner development of compassion or empathy 
   • Creating toolkits or implementation guides to share your intervention across COMs 
3. Name of principal investigator(s), affiliation, institution, contact information and institutional contact 
    
4. Statement of specific research question 
    
5. Specific research aims 
    
6. Provide background and significance 
    
7. Describe the study design and methods 
    
8. Program evaluation plan 
   Describe how success of the project is assessed, focusing on the key performance indicators. Please use SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-delimited). Download How to Write Smart Objectives for effective writing tips. Plan for ‘publication’ of results (journal submission or for Educating Leaders, the AACOM Annual Conference) 
    
9. Sustainability
    
10. Literature cited
     
11. Budget (see budget note*)
     
12. Brief Bio (see brief bio note**)
     
13. IRB decision or evidence of submission to IRB (from each institution involved in study)
     
14. If relevant, letter(s) of commitment from department chair(s) and external collaborator(s) on institutional letter head
     
15. If relevant, approval by osteopathic college or hospital research office (from each institution involved in study)

• Total Amount Requested: Include only direct costs related to the research project. (up to $7500) 
• Travel Budget: If a travel budget is included, the projected travel expenditure must total less than 50% of the total budget and the budget narrative must clearly state how the travel directly relates to the proposed research. Be sure to itemize the expenditures based on destination, number of researchers, etc. 
• Funding support cannot be used for capital expenditures such as salaries, rent/utilities or other indirect costs. 
• The budget is part of the proposal narrative and should detail how the budget will be used. Download sample Excel budget sheet

rief bio of investigator(s) should be limited to no more than 250 words per person. Key elements to consider including: 

• Full name 
• Credentials 
• Graduate/postgraduate education 
• Current position, program, institution 
• Experience relevant to the proposed grant research 
• Research and/or publication accomplishments relevant to the proposed grant research